The best power conditioner for less than $1K?

I would still want my electric to be as good as I could achieve before I started with room treatments. I would put your source on a dedicated line with an Audio Magic Mini Digital and listen. I have used the Hydra, but prefer the AM line. Sound Application, even used, is out of your budget. Room treatments? Maybe, but I would prefer to have electric nirvana before I started going that route...IMHO...

To answer this thread's primary question, what is the best PLC under $1k? For a passive filtering device, if the lower-priced Audio Magic Stealth is anything like the Eclipse model I run with, this could very well be the ticket to entry level PLC greatness. A friend has the Hydra8 and swears by it so the Hydra4 would be my other choice to consider. The PS Audio regenerating units may be worthy of audition, but these generate heat and so I prefer to stay with the passive filtering devices.

The above issue could dramatically change the clarity and resolution of the system. You may very well hear more silence between the notes. Sounds will be as if they are the results of musicians and not just sounds. But a PLC is not going to do much to bring on "warmth" or simulate an analog-like presentation. If you're after analog "qualities" like portrayal of space, long decays, harmonic textures especially in the mids, no PLC nor room treatments are the answer here. In the context of your system's components, this is simply not going to happen.

Room treatments are not likely to bring on "warmth" either. When I added ASC tube traps around the room, they brought on even greater clarity to the mids and highs. But this was not so much a tonality change in the mids that is often associated with the term, warmth. The ASC's removed a fatiguing edge that was very evident when I took them back out of the room. And the result here made for more greater decays and ambience because of the clarity.

You want warmth....you need one of a handful of tube preamps out there. It is not likely going to happen any other way. You want analog sound from CD playback, you're looking at a top-notch tube DAC.

John

Hi Paul: I'm in agreement with the aforementioned as being good tweak suggestions, only some of which may achieve your 'warm analog-like' tuning objective.
A decent PLC is a necessity IMO; provides reduced glare, and also provides AC line-transient protection, for ownership peace-of-mind.
A different PLC should likely alter your sonic signature but I'm unsure what to suggest. I've experienced warmer-sounding results with Audio Magic; in your pricerange you may be interested in this 6-outlet Audio Magic Matrix (I've since upgraded to the Audio Magic Stealth XXX, I needed more outlets). The detachable AC cord allows you to tune the sonic signature of your entire rig by switching the mains AC input cord.

In order to alter your sonic signature more to your liking, I would (at least initially) retain your existing audio components & speakers. If you haven't already done so, you can also experiment with different upgrade AC cords, signal cables, & perhaps even speaker cabling. Component shelving & footer tweaks are alternative tuning tools available for your experimentation; changes in sonics can vary considerably depending upon sensitivity of the components.

The only budget PLC's I'm experienced with are the Chang Lightspeed product line. I used a CLS3200 and a CLS9900Amp (also here available) before upgrading to Audio Magic.

Proper vibration control will help you get clearer (focused), more coherent and relaxed sound.

I'm a BIG fan of 220/100 isolation transformers/filters and they can be set up in an apartment. For a start, though, try the parallel filtration approach and take it from there. It's very hard (and $$$) to make HT sound theater to sound 'analog' like. I do not recommend the tube buffer approach, though.